two months after moving back to America from Japan, i've finally done what i've been dreaming about doing for years...! that is, cutting off my butt-length locs of 11 years-- i.e., the #BigChop...
whether we want it to be or not, #BlackHair is often Political, especially in its’ natural, unstraightened state. combine this with #Blackness itself...
anonymous said: I stumbled across the term Maverique a few days ago. Before I went w/ the gender I was assigned at birth (cuz ¯_(ツ)_/¯), but the definition just “clicked”. After reading more about it I’m not sure if I can ID that way tho, cuz while I don’t feel genderless, or like a man/woman, I do feel kinda “feminine”, but it’s not like “”””feminine””””, you know? It’s really “me”/innate & unrelated to things outside myself, but feminine as a word still fits, just the concept of feminine is my own. Thoughts? sorry for the slow reply, anon. i’m sorry that my definition of maverique being what it is has caused you to question whether you can identify as maverique or not. my personal stance is that if you feel like ‘maverique’ describes you then it does, even if ‘feminine’ also happens to describe you as well. i’m the last person to…
anonymous said: On the visibility thing- I am a trans person who wants to be proudly and visibly trans, mostly because I’m genderqueer and there isn’t really a way to “pass” as gq, so being seen as cis is automatically misgendering me. So I try to be as “nonpassing” and obviously trans/queer as possible. And I’m sure there are plenty of other trans people who want to be visibly trans, otherwise stuff like trans pride shirts and such wouldn’t exist, no? Or am I misunderstanding what you mean by visibility? ( re: this post ) i agree with you, anon, that there are a lot of people who want to visibly subvert and / or defy the assumption that they are cis a man / woman or otherwise a binary gender that they are not– especially among those for whom (as you pointed out) “passing” as their gender (or lack thereof) is…
anonymous said: Heya! Sorry to bother you, but what does Xジェンダー mean? Is it literally the Japanese translation of non-binary? Or has the same meaning? Thanks according to 「Xジェンダーって何?」, Xジェンダー (”x gender”) is: 性自認を表す言葉の一種で、出産時に割り当てられた男性もしくは女性の性別のいずれに二分された性の自覚を持たず、自己の性別に関し、男女どちらでもない、あるいは男女どちらでもある、さらにはそれすらもどちらでもないっといった認識を自己の性に対してもっている人々のことを指す日本独自の呼称です。 a word that refers to a gender identity; a term unique to Japan to refer to people who do not identify as either of the two genders, male and female, that are assigned at birth, but rather self-identifies as neither male nor female, both male and female or as a different gender entirely. while i don’t have any sources to link to at the moment, i’m fairly certain that Xジェンダー was coined in Japan completely independent of “non-binary” in the English language. in fact, i’m also fairly certain that it was coined before usage of “non-binary” in reference to gender in English, but again, no source links because i’m too tired to dig for them. either way, Xジェンダー is…
anonymous said: Is Maverique basically no gender as your gender identity? Kinda like how Agender is genderness. Maverique is no gender as your gender? sorry for the delayed response, anon, but i think you’ve got maverique and agender confused…? agender is commonly described as being (among other things) genderless, gender neutral and / or non-participatory in gender all together (as opposed to being a gender itself). maverique, on the other hand, is none of those things. maverique is described as having an explicit gender (as opposed to not having a gender at all). that gender (ie. maverique) is unrelated to either female or male gender, but at the same not “neutral” just because it happens to be independent of those two genders. for more information, you may (or may not) find this post helpful. there’s also the FAQ page over at @maveriques.
anonymous said: need help finding a word for my gender identity, if possible? agender was close, but its not that i dont have a gender, its that my gender is neutral. neutrois appears to be the closest thing, from the definitions ive seen. while i do have dysphoria & have thought abt certain aspects of transitioning, and a desire to be neutral in appearance – all aspects of definitions of neutrois ive seen – it appears to /require/ these things. and that heavy medical/clinical emphasis makes me v uncomfortable. oh, anon… if only you knew how ironic if feels to be on the receiving end of this ask. and in fact, i’ve been on the receiving end of an ask like this before. you aren’t alone in your discomfort. the irony, though? that i feel the same way and have felt this way since 2012, back when neutrois was much…
to everyone who made it out to Tokyo Rainbow Pride today and metup with us (many of whom aren’t photoed above), otsukaresama deshita! it was great to see you all and i hope everyone had as great a time as i did. without going into a long-winded spiel because i’m exhausted (and might do it later), today was the highlight of Pride: the parade through Shibuya / Harajuku. imho, it’s safe to say that this year’s parade was the best yet in terms of asexual representation and visibility. not only that, there was also more non-binary, genderqueer and pansexual representation and visibility than in years past thanks largely in part to the NPO にじいろ学校 (formally にじいろ小町) whose group and float Ace Spec Japan walked with this year. more information and a lot more photos will be posted hopefully within the next week, so stay tuned. (original photo courtesy of @mom1615 via…
navigating any job market as a non-binary and / or gender non-conforming person can be tough, especially given the current void of information and resources available on the subject. since i’ve recently found myself having to navigate Japan’s job market, i figured i might as well threw my own personal experience out there into the void. perhaps it’ll help someone else out there. please note that this video is not a ‘how-to’ on finding a job in Japan. rather, i talk about my own (limited) personal experience the job market in Japan in terms of navigating names when your actual name differs from your current legal name, navigating Japanese standards of “professional attire”, being forced to reevaluate things like HRT and “activism” outside of the workplace, etc. long video is long, so here are some jump points for ease of viewing: ?00:56 – disclaimers ?02:26 – background information ?03:19 –…
anonymous said: So I wanted to ask being nonbinary, does it ever get difficult to navigate different aspects of your life because of you being nonbinary, specifically things like dealing with career, or a hobby or a passion that you have, where it feels like you have to hide or compromise who you are in order to retain that aspect of your life. I ask because right now i’m thinking of transitioning and even though i’m financially independant it feels like my different interests are tying me down 1/2 and that in order not to loose those interests I have to compromise various aspects of me being nonbinary, like for instance I do singing and karate and it feels like if I ever wanted to start transitioning I’d have to give those things up or say that i’m binary trans in order to justify transitioning, It feels like i’m at…
